[Peace-discuss] Denigrating Carter's book on Israel/Palestine

[Morton K. Brussel]

In fact, Qumsiyeh reports (see below)  that reader-reviewers do give  
alternative, favorable, reviews of Carter's book, but the case  
remains that the "official" introductory review is grossly negative,  
which is, to say the least, highly unusual for this outfit.  I append  
Qumsiyehs postscript on this issue:

2) Follow-up to earlier action alert about Amazon's poor treatment of  
Carter's book: Thanks to the hundreds of you who wrote and those who  
copied to me your letters to Amazon.  Other recipients of my email  
said they could not find the negative Washington Post/Goldberg review  
displayed prominently in the front. But you can go to Amazon.com and  
search Jimmy Carter and it will take you to its page. There you would  
actually have to scroll through it to get to customer reviews which I  
agree were good. Other readers said that Amazon has allowed good  
customer reviews and so it is OK if they included Goldberg's  
malicious review.  But this is simply not how Amazon treats other  
books.  In fact to my knowledge there is simply no book in Amazon's  
top 100 sellers that is treated like Carter's (with a negative long  
review before customer reviews).  Take for example Thomas Friedman's  
stupid book in defense of corporate globalization "The World is Flat"  
and see how it is displayed with no negative editorial reviews.  In  
fact, Amazon sells Hitler's Mein Kempf, the Protocols of the Elders  
of Zion, and other books like that without treating them in as shabby  
a way they treated Carter's book (ie. no lengthy 1600 word negative  
reviews in the section for editorial reviews)! BTW, the reviewer  
(Goldberg) was a guard at the infamous Ketziot prison (in this video  
about political prisoners in Israeli jails their is quite a chilling  
anecdote about Ketziot: "Captured Prisoners," http:// 
www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/cap-pris.html).  Anyway I know I will  
buy my future books at local booksellers and when I have to do it  
over the internet, I will use the  unionized bookstore Powells. If  
you enter through the union portal, a percent supports the union there:
http://www.unionplus.org/benefits/education/frame_powells.cfm



On Jan 15, 2007, at 5:06 AM, John W. wrote:

>
> Huh????  Whose opinion is it that Amazon.com should censor a book  
> review?  Isn't that contrary to everything that AWARE stands for?   
> Why not just have a few people write POSITIVE reviews of the book?   
> Duh.
>
> John Wason
>
>
>
> At 08:57 PM 1/14/2007, Morton K. Brussel wrote:
>
>> Notes from Mazin Qumsiyeh regarding a highly unfavorable review on
>> Amazon.com of Carter's book.
>>
>>
>> 1) Wolf Blitzer worked for the Israel lobby before he worked for CNN.
>> 2) Action: boycott Amazon
>> 3) Question/commentary: How much will big oil companies pillage from
>> Iraq?? (I could use some help in the math!)
>> ---------------------
>> 1) Wolf Blitzer worked for the Israel lobby before he worked for
>> CNN.  Here is a video of him advocating Israeli perspecives on a
>> Panel with Norman Finkelstein before he became CNN employee  
>> http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-8aTGnjHnI
>>
>> 2) Action: (I wrote to Jeff Bezos and a Jesse Jensen, executive
>> customer relations ecr at amazon.com responded that they are keeping the
>> review.  I wrote back saying Amazon lost a good customer and that I
>> am informing my listserve.  I also bought four copies of Carter's
>> book at Costco- MQ). FWD from Henry Norr: For several weeks now
>> Amazon.com has been running the full, 1636-word text of a totally
>> negative review of Jimmy Carter's "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" on
>> the page where it sells the book
>> http://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Peace-Apartheid-Jimmy-Carter/dp/ 
>> 0743285026/sr=8-1/qid=1168467614/ 
>> ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-2193402-4648137?ie=UTF8&s=books
>>
>> Because this is totally out of line with their normal format and in
>> contradiction to their self-interest in selling copies, and because
>> their CEO, Jeff Bezos, has flatly turned down requests from me and
>> other customers for more balanced treatment of the book, it seems
>> clear that this is either a deliberate political statement on the
>> part of Amazon's leaders or an abject concession to pressure from
>> Zionist zealots. Whatever you think of the Carter book, its
>> publication is an important event, and it's unacceptable for Amazon
>> to be trying to discourage sales of it.
>>
>> Since the letters didn't work, I've created an online petition
>> protesting what Amazon is doing and threatening to cancel my account
>> there. It's at http://www.petitiononline.com/Amazon07/petition.html .
>> I hope you'll not only check it out and sign it, but also pass along
>> copies of this message or one of your own to friends and family and
>> to all possible e-mail lists.
>>
>> If you agree that Amazon is out of line on this, but you're
>> uncomfortable with anything in the petition, or you're not willing to
>> pledge to close your account, or you don't have an account to begin
>> with, you can send your own message  directly to Bezos at
>> jeff at amazon.com.
>> In fact, even if you do sign the petition, it wouldn't hurt to send
>> him e-mail in addition.
>> Most important, though, is to spread the word to as many people as
>> possible.

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